narya_flame (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
narya_flame) wrote2020-06-06 06:52 pm
narya_flame) wrote2020-06-06 06:52 pm
Entry tags:
Emily Is Away
A few years late, but I just played through this short, bittersweet visual novel after downloading it from Steam, and it was like having all the awkwardness and uncertainty and second-guessing of my teenage years distilled into a few short IM conversations. Nicely done, developers.
The game tells the story of the player-character's relationship with a girl named Emily over the course of five years. You click through a branching narrative presented through a mid-00s style messenger sim, making choices about how to interact with Emily as you grow up and, at various points, grow closer together or further apart. There are some cute little touches that will be familiar to those who grew up in that era - Blink 182 icons! Ridiculous lyric-inspired usernames! The agony over whether to end that flirty message with a winking emoji! - and at times I genuinely found my heart beating faster and butterflies in my stomach, waiting to see what Emily was typing, desperate to know just what it was that she deleted. (I vividly remember sitting in front of the desktop computer in my Mum's study doing the exact same thing as I talked to my crush on MSN Messenger at the age of 15.)
I haven't read anything that tells me what all the narrative options are, as I will probably play through a couple more times and I'd rather experience it firsthand. I suspect, though, from the tone of the interactions and the types of situations that there isn't a happy ending available - and after a little thought, I like that. Maybe it's the listless, don't-know-what-to-do vibe of this weird half-lockdown we now have going on, but the game chimed perfectly with how I'm feeling at the moment. It straddles that fine nostalgic line between soothing and sad, while having just enough substance to give you a little discomfort, and make you think, and consider the consequences of your choices.
The gender of the player-character isn't stated. I think the developers assume the player will be male, but I picked a female username and went through the game as Emily's BFF who was in love with her in high school, and never did anything about it - and I think the dynamics are far more interesting if you play it as two young women trying to figure out what they are to each other than if the player-character is a dude who got friend-zoned. (Just my opinion, YMMV.)
Anyway - a thought-provoking little indie game with a sequel available and another one in the works. Recommend it as a way to pass an hour or two.
The game tells the story of the player-character's relationship with a girl named Emily over the course of five years. You click through a branching narrative presented through a mid-00s style messenger sim, making choices about how to interact with Emily as you grow up and, at various points, grow closer together or further apart. There are some cute little touches that will be familiar to those who grew up in that era - Blink 182 icons! Ridiculous lyric-inspired usernames! The agony over whether to end that flirty message with a winking emoji! - and at times I genuinely found my heart beating faster and butterflies in my stomach, waiting to see what Emily was typing, desperate to know just what it was that she deleted. (I vividly remember sitting in front of the desktop computer in my Mum's study doing the exact same thing as I talked to my crush on MSN Messenger at the age of 15.)
I haven't read anything that tells me what all the narrative options are, as I will probably play through a couple more times and I'd rather experience it firsthand. I suspect, though, from the tone of the interactions and the types of situations that there isn't a happy ending available - and after a little thought, I like that. Maybe it's the listless, don't-know-what-to-do vibe of this weird half-lockdown we now have going on, but the game chimed perfectly with how I'm feeling at the moment. It straddles that fine nostalgic line between soothing and sad, while having just enough substance to give you a little discomfort, and make you think, and consider the consequences of your choices.
The gender of the player-character isn't stated. I think the developers assume the player will be male, but I picked a female username and went through the game as Emily's BFF who was in love with her in high school, and never did anything about it - and I think the dynamics are far more interesting if you play it as two young women trying to figure out what they are to each other than if the player-character is a dude who got friend-zoned. (Just my opinion, YMMV.)
Anyway - a thought-provoking little indie game with a sequel available and another one in the works. Recommend it as a way to pass an hour or two.